


Souls Cannot Die Unless We Will

by YesBothWays



Series: Love is a Quest [9]
Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 17:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3776659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YesBothWays/pseuds/YesBothWays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a poem from Xena's perspective</p>
            </blockquote>





	Souls Cannot Die Unless We Will

No armor will form in me against you.  
I would rather be dead. How terribly  
Helpless I would find myself now  
If I thought as I did then.  
You should be willing to kill even  
your own mother. I said this only  
To those I took closest to me, those  
I held near as if they were kin. You  
Should be willing to kill even me.  
As I would kill you if the occasion called.  
What lessons was I teaching? To those  
I called beloved even as I learned the same? 

A priestess asked me once if I were  
Afraid of mirrors. It was how she startled  
Warlike men who came. They did not like to see  
Their own faces reflected back at them.  
I look upon myself with pride, as one looks at the  
Shine and curve of a perfectly kept sword,  
That was my answer. I killed her instead of  
Speaking anymore. I found it easier then.  
Silence arrested me when you came and  
Waded through filth to come and find me again.  
Why had you sent me here? I would never  
Understand. But it all fell away from me,  
The art of hatred. I failed now at my own art. 

Let them kill me, I thought, without fear.  
For there never was any fear for me, just hatred.  
I felt now that I could go to my death along with  
One thing none of them could kill. I find I still  
Take to this art awkwardly in contrast to the grace  
I have gained in the arts of war. Yet I could  
Follow love even to my own death, on display  
Before my enemies and never find that old way.  
You, of all people, I love with an endurance  
And a mastery that if I thought to replace with  
Hatred, it simply wouldn't matter, for I know,  
I never could.


End file.
